Vioxx has been removed from the market, and the use of Thalidomide is severely restricted. Fluoroquinolones, on the other hand, are prescribed with abandon, despite the fact that hundreds of studies have shown that they do severe cellular damage and thousands of patients have filed reports with the FDA noting that a variety of severe health problems have been experienced after taking a fluoroquinolone.

Transgenerational Side-Effects

I have argued that fluoroquinolones have transgenerational ill effects and that children are suffering because of the epigenetic effects of fluoroquinolones (HERE and HERE). I have never hoped to be wrong about anything more than my assertions that fluoroquinolones are related to autism, but the possibility exists – because we really don’t know what the transgenerational effects of microbiome destruction and depletion of mitochondrial DNA are – and fluoroquinolones do, indeed, both obliterate the microbiome and deplete the only non-redundant form of DNA that we have – mitochondrial DNA. (1)

If someone with some resources would do a proper epidemiological study that takes the tolerance thresholds for fluoroquinolones (people typically don’t react to their first dose – they only react once their threshold for mitochondrial damage is crossed) and delayed reactions (the “vicious cycle” of mitochondrial damage and oxidative stress makes it so that damage is accelerated as time goes on – and thus delayed severe reactions are common) into account, perhaps the connection would be made between fluoroquinolones – drugs that not only deplete mitochondrial DNA but also destroy the microbiome and lead to adverse gene expression – and the chronic “mysterious” diseases that have been on the rise since the introduction of cipro on the market by Bayer in 1983. (Of course, fluoroquinolones are not the only cause of these diseases – fluoroquinolones are just one category of pharmaceuticals that damage mitochondria and lead to oxidative stress. Other pharmaceuticals do the same. But the harm done by fluoroquinolones specifically and pharmaceuticals generally, and the role that they play in these diseases, is horribly under-recognized.)

When the Cellular Damage Done is Realized

Once people realize that a pharmaceutical, a popular antibiotic no less, has done damage to their mitochondrial DNA, and has led to harm in them and their children, I hope that all of the top executives at Bayer (makers of cipro and avelox) and Johnson & Johnson (makers of levaquin) are put on trial. Causing people to be chronically ill is bad enough – but people seem to let pharmaceutical companies off the hook when they do it. Damaging our DNA – DNA that has been adapted and perfected over billions of years – is trial-worthy.

When the top Bayer and J&J executives and scientists are confronted about the damage that their drugs did, they will likely say that they didn’t know – they had no idea that their “antibiotics” (they’re chemo drugs) were so harmful.

This is what should be said to them in return –

“What did you think was going to happen? What did you think would happen in a person’s body when the DNA of the bacteria in their microbiome was unraveled? (3)

What did you think would happen when their mitochondrial DNA was depleted? Did it not occur to you that mitochondria are ancient bacterium and that when you interfere with the replication process for bacterial DNA, you do the same thing to mitochondrial DNA? (4)

What did you think would happen when your drugs depleted magnesium and iron from a patient’s cells? (56)

What did you think would happen when you depleted all of their antioxidants? (10)

What did you think would happen when your drugs caused chromosomal aberrations in immune system cells? (11)

What did you think would happen when you gave chemo drugs to your patients who have a simple infection, not cancer? (12)

Did you think that it wouldn’t damage them? Or did you know that fluoroquinolones would do severe cellular damage, but you just didn’t care? Did you mistake a tolerance threshold for mitochondrial damage (13) for safety? Or did you know that these were the perfect drugs – chemo drugs disguised as antibiotics that induce chronic, multi-symptom illness – and that with these drugs you could make customers for life?”

Willful Ignorance

At best, the top executives and scientists at Bayer and Johnson & Johnson didn’t think. They didn’t consider the fact that fluoroquinolones are topoisomerase inhibitors – and that they work by dismantling and adducting to DNA – as opposed to disrupting cell walls like innocuous antibiotics such as penicillin or cephalosporins. If one is to give them far more credit than they deserve, maybe there is the possibility that they didn’t make the connections. Maybe they didn’t notice that many of the chronic diseases of modernity that fluoroquinolone toxicity mimics – fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, irritable bowel syndrome, etc. – have gone up along with the use of fluoroquinolones (and other mitochondria damaging drugs). Maybe they let denial of mitochondrial damage, delayed reactions and tolerance thresholds protect their precious egos and shareholders. But neither denial nor willful ignorance are legitimate excuses. They never have been, and they never will be. The top executives and scientists at Bayer and J&J, along with those at the FDA, should have known how dangerous and damaging fluoroquinolones are.

The Connections

The connection is not difficult to make. Pharmaceuticals damage mitochondria (they’re vulnerable little organelles that also happen to be quite important). Damaged mitochondria produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) which is also known as oxidative stress. ROS / oxidative stress is associated with (by “associated with” I mean causes, but shhhh, you can’t say that while being scientific) every single chronic disease there is – including, but not limited to; Alzheimer’s (14) , Parkinson’s (15), chronic fatigue syndrome / M.E. (16), fibromyalgia (17), Gulf War Syndrome (18), autism (19), many psychiatric diseases (20), etc. Of course, the details of how pharmaceuticals damage mitochondria and how oxidative stress leads to those diseases is incredibly complicated, but the top scientists and executives at Bayer and J&J, and the “regulators” at the FDA, should be smart enough to read the source documents listed below and to know that the drugs that they produce/approve are dangerous.

After all, it was stated in 1992 that:

“the interaction (of fluoroquinolones) with DNA is still of great concern because of the possible long-term genotoxicity of quinolone compounds, which are increasingly adopted as first-choice antibiotics for the treatment of many infections, and because it addresses the real mechanism of action of this class of molecules.” (5)

Paying attention to how pharmaceuticals interact with DNA is probably a good idea.

Many pharmaceuticals damage mitochondria. Not all of them interrupt the production of enzymes that are vital for the replication and transcription of DNA though. Fluoroquiolones do. They also form poisonous metabolites (thanks carboxylic acid molecule!) (21) and leach all of the magnesium (22) and iron out of cells. It’s not exactly fun to go through. Fluoroquinolones are damaging people – on a cellular level – severely – and because of delayed reactions, tolerance thresholds and ignorance of everyone in the medical system, victims have no idea what hit them.

People are Sick – Pharma Companies Should be Held Responsible for Their Role

People are sick. They are chronically ill and are suffering. Neither doctors nor anyone in the pharmaceutical industry have any idea how to put them back together again. Doctors have no idea how to help those suffering from Fluoroquinolone Toxicity Syndrome or any other chronic “mysterious” disease. They don’t even know how to administer the correct tests to give them an accurate diagnosis. So they blame the patients – for their diet or lifestyle or pain. But the patients are not to blame. The drugs are to blame.

The people who make, sell, and fail to regulate these drugs are to blame. They should be held accountable.

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